Sammy Hitzke's most recent appearance on the Mighty Mojo had black marlin gear strapped to every gunwale and the Australian International Billfish Tournament leaderboard on the line. The next trip out was the diametric opposite — and according to Hitzke, possibly the more enjoyable of the two.
"Last time you would have seen us on this boat, we were chasing black marlin in the Australian International Billfish Tournament. Today we're doing the exact opposite," he told viewers, with regular fishing partner Shaun O on board. "What are we doing, mate? We're targeting snapper. In fact, anything tasty to put a few fillets in the esky side."
Shaun O's read on the day was even more direct.
"We are filling eskies catching a feed."
The spread of tackle on board hinted at how broad a feed-fishing day really is. Jig rods, float-lining rods, a couple of spin rods and a full set of trolling outfits in reserve in case the wind ramped earlier than the forecast suggested.
"There's more rods in here than most tackle shops," Hitzke joked. "But like we always say, better be looking at them than looking for them."
The wind window was tight — forecast to deteriorate just after midday — so the trolling outfits stayed rigged in case a marlin or wahoo lit up on the way home. Both species were still being caught locally, and Hitzke flagged that the team had been alternating between billfish trolls and bottom-bashing in the weeks before.
Live bait was the first plan. It didn't quite play out.
"We didn't have a great deal of success getting livies, guys. Found some bait, but it's not biting, which is probably a good sign because there's some bigger targets sitting there with it," Hitzke said. "So we thought we may as well just go for a drop. Got some leftover marlin baits. The old slimy mackerel."
With no live offerings to deploy, the session became a float-line classic — dead pilchards drifted down on minimal weight, riding the tide. The first snapper came on a slimy mackerel and confirmed the read.
"Turns out they like a slimy. Just a bit harder to hook," Hitzke noted, releasing a fish that was just the wrong side of legal before locking onto the keepers.
He described the float-line as the format he is happiest fishing.
"Just a good feed of snapper floating some pillies down. It's about as cool as fishing gets in my opinion. Bread and butter."
When the current picked up and float-lining became a guessing game over how much leader to pay out, he switched to a 150 g jig outfit — a deliberate gear-change rather than persisting with a method the conditions had already broken.
With the bite firing through the morning and pearl perch and snapper queueing up over the same patch of structure, the comparison to his recent tournament work was unavoidable.
"Tell you what, it makes you think twice about the old marlin fishing when it's going like this. We're chasing eaters, not trophies. Although we will accept a trophy."
The back end of the trip was a catch-and-cook over open coals — the kind of finish that has become a hallmark of Hitzke's mid-week feed-fishing content. The wider point of the session, though, was a simple one for anyone who has been burned out on tournament-tempo offshore work: when the bite is on for snapper and pearlies, an esky-full day can deliver a far higher hit rate of memorable fish than a hard-charging billfish chase — and on a 150 g jig and a packet of pillies, the cost of entry is a fraction of what trolling a full marlin spread requires.